


You're All I'm Thinking of

by Dresupi



Category: Daredevil (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awesome James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Claire-centric, Developing Relationship, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Gift Fic, Love Confessions, Moving In Together, POV Claire Temple, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, all around cuteness, post daredevil season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 22:32:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9463139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi
Summary: James Rhodes was definitely a surprise.  And surprises weren’t something Claire Temple had any shortage of.  But, she supposed surprises weren’t always bad things.  Jim definitely wasn’t a bad thing.  Not at all.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aunbrey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aunbrey/gifts).



> For [probablyunnecessary](http://probablyunnecessary.tumblr.com/), who won my Six Sentence Saturday 1k fic giveaway this month. <3 Hope you enjoy this! :D

Claire didn’t have a TON of time, but Jim was leaving New York soon and she wanted to see him once more before he left.  The weekend they’d spent in her apartment just wasn’t enough.  So, a rushed picnic lunch at the park was obviously in order.  She had to be at the clinic at two, and his flight back to DC was leaving at three.  Even though she kind of assumed he could leave whenever he wanted.  He WAS a former Air Force colonel after all.   

James Rhodes was definitely a surprise.  And surprises weren’t something Claire Temple had any shortage of.  But, she supposed surprises weren’t always bad things.  Jim definitely wasn’t a bad thing.  Not at all.  

They’d met over a year ago at a benefit dinner for her clinic.  She’d been surprised to see him there.  Hell, it was a Stark foundation gala and neither Tony Stark nor Pepper Potts had bothered to show up, so why would a former-Air-Force-colonel-turned-superhero make any effort?  

The prosthetics Stark had designed for him were clunky and strange looking, so Rhodey, AKA War Machine had drawn some looks.  There was definitely no mistaking who he was, though.  He was wearing a tailored Armani and custom Stark prosthetics.  Yeah, it was the real War Machine, alright.  

After two minutes of talking to him, however, Claire barely noticed anything out of the ordinary.  Jim carried himself with this air of confidence.  Confidence without arrogance.  And that was something more worth a double take than any robotic leg and back braces.  He stood still a lot of the time, Claire figured it was probably a tiring process, wearing those braces.  But he more than made up for his lack of room working.  He had jokes to tell.  Funny stories about working with the Avengers.  And even though Claire had previously thought she was done with superheroes for good, she found herself drawn into Jim’s very charismatic bubble.  

The benefit had been a huge success with over five hundred thousand dollars raised, which Rhodes promised the Stark foundation would match.  

And then, at the end of the night, Jim had asked for her number.  She’d given it, without a second thought.  He was handsome, there was no question about that.  But he was kind and generous too.  All around a good guy.  At least upon her first impression.  

As Claire had grown to discover, Jim made an excellent second, third, fourth, and fifth impression too.  In fact, the man was just good at impressions.  He was just GOOD.  He was a good guy, and she felt lucky to have met him.  

She didn’t get to see him a lot, neither of their busy schedules allowed it.  But she was thrilled to have him for the little amount of time she was able.  Weekends here and there.  Overnights.  

She’d even gone down to DC a few times.  She’d taken her week of paid vacation to travel down to visit him.  And the stars had aligned enough to give him four days of corresponding free time.  It had been…in a word, heaven.  

The ‘love’ word had been floating around in her mind for a while now, but she’d never worked up the courage to say it.  She wasn’t even sure if he felt the same way or not.  There were times when she could feel it though.  

In his gaze, in the brush of his fingers against her skin.  In the way his heart pounded when she lay her head on his chest.  The way he curled protectively around her in the middle of the night.  It was a rare and tentative thing, this relationship.  And she wasn’t in any hurry to rush anything.  It was perfect.  He was perfect.  She felt perfect when she was with him.  

She checked the grocery bag in her hand, making sure she’d brought everything with her.  She’d cut up strawberries and made egg salad sandwiches.  He was in charge of bringing drinks.  And chips.  Claire might have hinted heavily towards chips.  

He wasn’t difficult to spot; he was so tall.  He grinned and waved at her, cloth grocery bag in his other hand.  He was wearing different braces this visit.  Smaller ones.  As his nerves were regaining function, he was able to control his limbs more.  

According to him, Tony was patenting the idea and planning on making it affordable to everyone, so that way anyone who injured their spinal cord like Jim had might one day be able to walk again.  As flakey as Jim’s best friend was, Claire had to admit, Tony was a giver.  He just sometimes overestimated himself.  

She leaned up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips when she approached him.  His arm slid around her back and pulled her closer.  It was a little awkward with the bags, but Claire wasn’t going to complain.  She missed him already and he was right there in front of her.  She wished for what felt like the millionth time that visit that he didn’t have to divide his time between DC and New York.

They sat on a bench, opting to sit flush against each other with food in their laps.  It was a little bit messy that way, but again, no complaints from her end.  

“I was thinking…”  Jim began between bites of egg salad.  “I was thinking that maybe I should just bite the bullet and get a place up here, what do you think?”  

Claire’s heart leapt into her throat.  “It doesn’t matter what I think, what do  _ you _ think?”  

“Well, I know you’ve been living in Hell’s Kitchen…and I know that’s where your clinic is…but I was thinking something in Brooklyn?”  

Her eyebrows shot up.  “Are you…are you asking me to—”  

“Move in with me?  Yes…if you want to.  And we don’t have to live in Brooklyn.  We can live wherever you want.  I just thought I’d float the idea, because I know a guy who knows the area  _ pretty _ well.”  

“You want  _ me _ to move in with you?” she repeated.  

“I actually want  _ us _ to move in together…” he reiterated slowly, a grin slowly spreading across his face.  “What do you say, Temple?  Do you wanna?”  

“I love you,” she blurted.  “I need you to know that before we move in.”  

He chuckled. “And I love you.  Was that a ‘yes’ to the moving in?”  

“A resounding yes,” she said with a laugh.  

He leaned over to kiss her again.  To seal the deal.  Close the deal.  Whatever.  She was on cloud nine and not really caring about the logistics just yet.  

Jim reached over into his bag, pulling out a container of what looked like either cheddar or colby cheese. 

“Oh no, don’t EVEN start with that…”  Claire shook her head and looked away from him.  “Jim, I swear to god…”  

“What?”  He looked down at the container. “It’s cheese…not even the stinky kind?”  

“I’m sensitive to dairy…can’t have dairy, and now I want dairy, do you know what cheese does to me?” she rummaged around for her purse. “Now I have to take my Lactaid and you’d better not be eating that cheese, Mr. Rhodes, it’s MINE.”  

He chuckled and dropped it on his plate.  “It’s all yours, baby.  What’s mine is yours.”

Claire didn’t think she could possibly love him more than she did in that second.   

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/)!


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